National Sawdust

In honor of Juneteenth, we are happy to support our friends and collaborators at the arts production company We Are ffflypaper, founded by Siobahn Sung and former National Sawdust Producer Ras Dia. They have created a week-long digital and in-person Juneteenth celebration, FREEFEST, which culminates in a live festival at Domino Park June 19th-20th. An activation of community resources, rejoicing, and reclaiming, FREEFEST is a space for all. Featuring R&B, rollerskating, opera, electro funk, marching band performances, and more. Don’t miss the launch of this annual festival, RSVP now! To learn more, visit ffflypaper.org/FREEFEST

Join us on Wednesday evening for a live show in Domino Park featuring an all-star marching band performing compositions of two students who participated in our composition program with the El Puente school: Genairis Toribio and Emma Rivera Diaz! Under the tutelage of composer and Toulmin Creator JL Marlor and El Puente teacher Stephanie Leon, they have explored a wide variety of musical traditions to create several pieces for a marching band, inspired by protest drums and hor...ns. We’ll gather at the Domino Park Grand Street entrance at 6pm EST, where we will follow the marching band; comprised of Shayna Dunkelman, Julie Acosta, and Mario Castro; in a jubilatory march through the park. Then don’t miss out on the 6:45pm afterparty with students, their families, and the NS staff at Disco Tacos! We can’t wait to see you all in person. RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/386833516047906

Fire This Time: Lynne Procope with Patrick Rosal and Mary Rose Go

Hi all! We're having some issues with our Facebook livestream of tonight's 'Fire This Time', but we're live on Vimeo! Head here to join the virtual salon: https://vimeo.com/518627061

Nearest Green, or Uncle Nearest as his family and friends in his hometown of Lynchburg, Tennessee called him, was the first known African-American master distiller, and most notably, the distiller who mentored Jack Daniel on the art of the trade. A slave before the Emancipation Proclamation, Nearest went on to work as Daniel’s master distiller after the Civil War, though his invaluable contributions to the brand was erased from history until recently. Fawn Weaver, an African...-American real estate investor and author, not only devoted years of her life to researching Nearest’s legacy and bringing him back into the story of Jack Daniel’s, but released her own whiskey, Uncle Nearest 1856, in honor of his legacy. For tomorrow’s Fire This Time, our virtual salon inspired by the works of James Baldwin, mixologist Chris Buckley will teach us how to make a classic Old Fashioned with Uncle Nearest to cap off an evening of performance and discussion with host Lynne Procope and guests Patrick Rosal and Mary Rose Go. RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/188213599733217

We are proud to announce a refreshed live.nationalsawdust.org, created to be a zone for ideas and a digital stage for performances. Designed by digital artist Harshini J. Karunaratne and National Sawdust’s Senior Manager of Marketing and Design Zan Emerson, you can access the depth and variety of our signature mentorship programs for artists, explore current intellectual debates, experience new performances, browse our career development and performance archives by theme or genre, as well as discover upcoming programs. Explore our world today: https://live.nationalsawdust.org This project was made possible by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, with arts journalism led by our Interim Ideas Editor Shirine Saad with support by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.